Well, the weight-loss side of the week has been awful... for the whole week I managed to lose either .2 or .4 pounds.  GAH!  I was apparently doing something wrong but I've no idea what.  C'est la vie.  I got back on track towards the end of the week so I guess that counts for something.

Work has been going well, too.  I don't really talk about work too much on here for a variety of reasons.  The first reason is that when I'm not at work I don't like to think about work, so it's usually the furthest thing from my mind.  The second reason is that I don't have any way of knowing, 100%, who reads this, and I would never want to say something that could be misconstrued and cause problems.  I just don't need that kind of drama in my life.  I have a cat - that's enough drama for me.  So the only thing work-wise I will say is actually potentially bad: there is a bill going through the House and Senate that could decrease our budget by 20% or so.  When it's all said and done it would be the equivalent of 18 positions at our clerk's office.  Yikes!  So there are some that are for it, some against it... they didn't listen last year when they cut our budget so I don't have high hopes for this year.  But we'll see what happens.

Had a blast last night over at Scott and Autumn's place.  Kim and I played Rock Band while the others D&D'd it.  Autumn killed Scott's character over an argument about religion, essentially.  It was kind of funny.  Good thing Scott's a good guy, though, and he didn't take it personally.  Seems like he's pretty excited to make a new character.  Autumn's character ended up redeeming herself (Scott's character was a good-aligned zealous cleric) by taking out a big bad guy, although her character died in the process.  All the while Kim and I are jamming out.  It was entertaining.

I'm looking forward to today.  I've got plans to plant some stuff in the backyard as well as in little pots; we're going to have a tiny herb garden.  Eventually I'd like to have a real garden so I can grow my own cucumbers, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, etc.  But that will be a year or so before I get some decent skill in gardening to be able to do that.  Sometimes I wish I could be a Sim and learn the skill in a day or two.  XD  Also tonight we should be going over to Umatilla to hang out with friends; that is always fun, too.

Well, Casper is going to die if I don't pay attention to him so I better go find a catnip mousie (there's probably one under the couch) for him to play with. 

I've caught a cold, and it sucks.  I used to get sick a lot, when I lived up north.  Every winter, without fail, I'd have at least one cold, usually several, and I'd often catch a cold at other random times of the year to boot.  But ever since I moved to FL, I stopped getting colds.  I've been down here 3+ years and this is only the second time I've been sick.  I'd say that's pretty darn cool.  currently my throat is a tiny bit sore, nothing major (although it hurt like crazy last night), my nose is a little runny but it's not too bothersome (yet); what's driving me crazy is the stupid sinus pressure.  It's got my right ear all plugged up so I can't hear things properly, and since it's been like that for most of the afternoon, I have a headache!  It totally sucks.  And my nose is sore, from what I call ENBS: Excessive Nose Blowing Syndrome.  It occurs when you blow your nose too often and your skin gets all red and sore.  : (  Fortunately I have the only known remedy at my disposal: Puffs Plus with lotion.  Aaaahhhh, feels so good.  (yes I know I'm strange)

So that covers the "ENBS" in the subject line.  On to the acorns!  At work, our toilet paper used to just be the "Scott" brand type; thin, rough, no pretty little patterns or anything.  A little while ago they switched on us, and we got toilet paper more along the lines of Quilted Northern; softer and thicker plus ours had cute little flowers on it.  Yesterday, I went to the restroom and discovered that our toilet paper now has acorns on it.  Acorns!  How cute!!  I was seriously tempted to rip of a single sheet to keep for some bizarre unknown reason.  I decided against, much to the sadness of the side of personality that likes to hoard things.  (yes I know, I'm even stranger now)

Also related to work, my newest pet peeve involves the public computer we have set up in the break room.  It's got its own little cubicle-like area, which is nice for privacy.  However, a lot of people like to go over there just so they can have a "private" conversation on their cell phone, and not to use the computer.  This happened one day that I really wanted to check some stuff online, but found I could not because of some rude person sitting there talking on her cell phone.  -_-;  I could - should? - have gone up to her and asked if I could use the computer and kick her out of there, but I'm afraid of confrontation (sometimes) and so tend to not do those kinds of things.  I tend to not be afraid of confrontation when it involves someone I don't know, and thus don't care what they think of me.  Example:  I told someone to get out of an Employee parking spot because there were no other spots available and I didn't want to have to drive all the way to the back of the building to the overflow parking because then I would be late getting to my desk.  The guy was backed into the parking space and had his window rolled down.  So I put my car in park, opened the door and said: "Excuse me, you're parked in an employee parking spot, and I am an employee and you are not, so would you please move your vehicle so I can park there."  And I did not phrase it as a question.  He didn't say anything, but he did pull out of the space.  ^_^  Afterwards I was feeling the rush of adrenaline, but I was proud of myself for standing up to someone, even if it was only over a parking spot.

Lots and yet nothing has been going on lately... it's an odd contradiction. Work has been causing a little stress... turns out the woman who is retiring and whose job I am taking over didn't want to train the new hire who will be taking my place.  But of course she never said anything to me about it, so it kind of puts me in this weird position of "do I just take over now, even though she's been training him for 2 weeks already?" or "do I just keep going like I don't know?"  Well, his training is basically done except for some more complex stuff that he can't learn until he has the basics down, and that won't happen until after she retires at the end of the month.  So that leaves me with option 2, not that I really enjoy it, but it's kind of too late for anything else.  I just don't understand why, on that first day when she started training him, she didn't just come to me and say, "I think you should train him" or "I don't want to train him" or "I want you to train him" or whatever.  I assumed that a supervisor had told her they wanted her to do it, so I just let it be. *le sigh*

I called my mom last night to see if she had any news on Uncle Jimmy, and to find out some more details of their trip.  She made a weird comment about not wanting to have to support me during this because it's her brother and why can't I talk to Tammy (my oldest sister) about this.  All I did was ask if there was any news, not whether or not she thought he was going to be alive tomorrow.  So... I guess I will be contacting Tammy (my oldest sister) to get any further news, but what mom told me is that Uncle Jimmy is still in the hospital, despite that they said he would be released in a few days when he first went there.  I guess he's in a special "heart ward" which is better than being in intensive care, but she made it sound as if it were not that much better.  She basically told me that it's not a matter of "if" he will get better, but a matter of "when" his heart will stop working.  This sucks.

Mom and Chuck (my step-dad) are coming down next weekend.  Shaun and I are going to stay with them at their condo on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, then visit in the evenings for the rest of the week.  They want to meet his mom, which should be interesting to say the least.  The five of us eating out somewhere.... oh boy.  I'm sure it will be fine, but it's still a little stressful when your parents meet each other.  Not that their opinions of each other would have any effect on our relationship... my mom doesn't have to like his mom in order for he and I to continue dating.

So in summary, my uncle is doing badly, I have to clean the apartment from head to toe, and poor communication sucks.

.... or hardly working?  I have to say wholeheartedly, hardly working, though not through any real fault of my own.  My job is data entry.  The data I enter comes from traffic citations.  When the officers stop writing tickets, or just slow down for whatever reason, I have less to enter, thus I run out of work to do.  *le sigh*  It doesn't help that there are currently 3 of us doing this job, as the woman who trained me to help her is retiring at the end of September, so we need to be sure that her replacement is well-trained before she leaves.  Fun!  So this entire past week, I've been scrambling looking for other things to do around the office.  Not much fun, but at least it still pays the bills.  I'm grateful that I have a job, at least, which is better than some.

I didn't mean for this to become depressing, but oh well.  It's late, and now actually 30 minutes past my bedtime.  I wish I could stay up and listen to all of Barack Obama's speech, which Shaun is currently watching and I am listening to, but that won't be happening otherwise I will be a Zombie-Becky tomorrow.  Zombie-Becky.... rrraaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.......